They say knowledge is power, and that’s especially true in the college admissions process. But when that knowledge is for sale, the system breaks down. Those who can afford it spend thousands of dollars to obtain this information from private college counselors, and those who can't spend hours on websites like College Confidential, browsing through hundreds of posts from uninformed users to help them make a crucial life decision.

Our goal is to fix this problem.

This is The Harvard Crimson Admissions Blog. We'll use this space to write about colleges and the college admissions process, probing everything from athletic recruiting to standardized testing. We’ll be focusing on the most selective American colleges and universities, about which there exists a great deal of misinformation and speculation, but we won’t limit ourselves to these schools. We’ll also examine other private and public institutions, community colleges, online education models, and alternative post-high school options.

With this blog, The Crimson seeks to disseminate useful, unbiased, and accurate information about what, for some, will be the most important—and the most expensive—years of their lives.

We’ll strive to provide you the information you need by answering the questions everyone encounters in the college admissions process—how to study for the SATs, what to wear to an interview, and when to visit college campuses.

We’ll seek to be objective in how we investigate and how we write. We’ll conduct quantitative analyses of academic rigor and qualitative assessments of social life on campuses.

And, above all, we’ll make it our mission to deliver the truth. We’ll take a critical eye to the information that colleges put in glossy pamphlets—because there’s much more to a school than smiling students sitting beneath a tree in a grassy quad.

We'll investigate the rumors spread, not just through word of mouth and the internet, but also by college admissions offices around the country. If a school has an optional essay—that it promises is 100 percent optional!—should you write it? Some schools say that you don't increase your chances of being accepted if you apply early. Should you believe them? When an admissions officer says that you should "just be yourself" in your interview, does that mean you should talk at length about your obsession with trashy fan fiction?

This blog is run by Harvard College students on the staff of The Harvard Crimson, and at The Crimson we take pride in the fact that we are financially and editorially independent from our university. Because of this, we can promise our readers fair coverage of Harvard and other institutions of higher education. The Crimson has a 140-year history of reporting accurately and objectively, and a staff of 400 writers and editors who deliver that information every day.

Navigating the college admissions process can be tricky. And while we can’t provide you with a formula to get into Harvard or any other school, we can deliver the facts you need to make the most informed decisions possible.

Maya Jonas-SilverEditor of The Harvard Crimson Admissions Blog

Rebecca D. RobbinsManaging Editor of The Harvard Crimson

Robert S. SamuelsPresident of The Harvard Crimson

You can reach the editors of The Harvard Crimson Admissions Blog at admissions@thecrimson.com.